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2025 Toronto Fringe Festival wraps with record revenue for artists

“Artists are taking home more than half-a-million dollars, and many have sold out their first shows as professional creators,” wrote Toronto Fringe executive director Rachel Kennedy in a press release. “We are proud of our staff, volunteers, and artists for this accomplishment.”

Kiana Woo clowns around in full-circle moment with Guild Festival Theatre

For Woo, coming back to the Guild for the first time in four years — after working at Shaw, Soulpepper, the Citadel Theatre, and Théâtre Français de Toronto — feels like a homecoming.

Lighthouse Festival unearths rarely performed Norm Foster one-acts

“There’s not much time for character development, like there would be in a long play,” says Norm Foster of one-acts. “You have to… make it satisfying, and to have it come around to a plausible ending. It can’t just be a skit… So, it’s actually a little tougher to write.”

Spotlight: Marie Farsi

“I’ve learned how truth is revealed in translation, and I feel like that’s my job as a director,” says Farsi. “I have to translate the piece from the page to the stage, and all the meanings that can be derived from that process of translation.”

Let’s-a go: Embedded with the Fools’ Comedy of Errors

While I was preparing for the summer heat by shopping for lighter clothes, Kate Smith, artistic director of a Company of Fools, was getting ready for their next show. She called me while I was in the Rideau Centre and pitched an idea: “Would you have any interest in being an embedded critic?”

Theatre Aquarius’ NCNM selects three new musicals for 2025-26 development 

“The Danish Guest, The Blue Castle, and My Beef with Beef each bring such distinct worlds to life — from Victorian London to early-1900s Muskoka to a modern kitchen haunted by a ghost cow," wrote artistic director Mary Francis Moore in a press release.

Lighthouse Festival unearths rarely performed Norm Foster one-acts

“There’s not much time for character development, like there would be in a long play,” says Norm Foster of one-acts. “You have to… make it satisfying, and to have it come around to a plausible ending. It can’t just be a skit… So, it’s actually a little tougher to write.”

REVIEWS: Toronto Fringe Festival 2025

This collection of Toronto Fringe Festival capsule reviews will be updated throughout the festival with writing from 20 different critics.

As he plays Leontes at the Stratford Festival, Graham Abbey reflects on his deep bond with The Winter’s Tale

“It’s got to be my favourite [Shakespeare play] at this point,” says Abbey. “I don't understand why it's so rarely done. It’s listed as a ‘problem play,’ and I see that, but I have had such beautiful experiences with it throughout my life… I think it has the ability to unite audience and cast in a deeply human event.”

Let’s turn the page: Announcing a nationwide program for emerging performing arts critics

Do you like writing about the performing arts but wish you had more skills and contacts to help you advance in the field? Would you like to continue to build your writing and critical thinking skills? Are you IBPOC or from another equity-seeking background? There’s a new program for you.

REVIEW: Shaw Festival’s metatheatrical Major Barbara is sharp and subversive

Director Peter Hinton-Davis draws on a light smattering of Brechtian techniques — acknowledgements of artifice that enrich and vivify Major Barbara’s clash of morals.

REVIEW: Documenting seven Toronto indie shows, from Factory Theatre to the Tranzac Club and beyond

I’ve started writing brief reviews of Toronto productions Intermission isn’t otherwise covering, and stowing them away until I collect enough to publish in a batch. And now here I am, with seven.